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Author Topic: How many theatres still have more than one projectionist? Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 08-18-2005 12:58 AM                     Now, I want to touch on this one side topic that still returns to the main topic, then I'll shut up it since it can easily go off-topic: Do some of you remember, back in 1979-1980, when Detroit was pumping out cars that would fall apart within a year? And the Japanese automakers were "bombing" the US with their cars and "destroying" the US auto plants with their "car bombs" from the Mitsubishi M6M2 Zero dive bombers (this was an editorial cartoon that I saw at this time)? This was called the "2nd Japanese Bombing of the US" - Bombing the Detroit plants with their Toyotas, Hondas, Datsuns, Subarus, Mazdas, etc. By 1980, the Japanese were selling 30% more cars than the domestics were in the US. People demanded quality and they found it in the Japanese imports since the US domestics didn't have the quality. Detroit was in a whirlpool of confusion. They didn't know what to do. All they knew that the Japanese car had quality written all over it, to where theirs were written as junk. It took Detroit to finally wake up and learn to take lessons from the Japanese on how to build a good car. Did that hurt? You bet, it did-having to learn from a foreign country on how to make an excellent product. That really stung their pride, but they had to so they can still survive. In Japan, the factory workers are treated with a high deal of respect. The owners has fantastic employment plans to ensure of their longetivity in employment with their company(ies). There is housing plans for the employees offered by the manufacturers and benefit plans that will easily beat ours hands down. They even have exersize sessions during their work period to ensure that the workers are always in top health during production. In return, the workers are doing their absolute best in producing the best vehicles, or anything else, since they are treated like individuals, not robots and giving the feeling that they're not just doing a job, they're doing a service to the company(ies) and it's a career for the individual worker. ............................................................ With this above, is the basic reason of the 8 operators in a 16 screen cinema: the proprietor is giving the workers the feeling that what they are doing is a career, not a job. And the end results is quality and caring from the operators. Money is not an issue with this for the proprietors (course,we don't know how much these operators are being paid, but it doesn't matter to the operators-just the feeling of being successful in serving the proprietor), just doing the service rendered to the public and rewarding the employees for their service. ..a two-way street here is being practiced: you rub my back, and I'll rub yours on equal terms. -Monte [ 08-18-2005, 02:28 AM: Message edited by: Monte L Fullmer ]  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-18-2005 07:42 AM                        Are there any single screen houses that still have a two-man booth for regular, everyday screenings? (By this, I mean that nitrate, special shows, etc. are excluded for the purpose of this question.)  |  IP: Logged John Walsh Film God Posts: 2490 From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way Registered: Oct 1999 posted 08-18-2005 07:50 AM                     Two important things to note about the Japanese vs. USA. One, their government is very 'business-friendly' with lower interest rates, tax breaks, etc. Second, most of the manufacturing methodology and quality control procedures the Japanese use were written by Americans. This is especially sad, since American companies 'knew' the right way to do things, yet deliberately chose not to do so for the sake of a short-term gain.  |  IP: Logged Dieter Depypere Master Film Handler Posts: 343 From: Deutsch-Wagram, Lower Austria, Austria Registered: May 2005 posted 08-18-2005 08:20 AM                     There are two projectionists working in that single screen I work in (me & another one). But we never work at the same time - we are taking turns (e.g. I play mon-thu and he fri-sun or somthing like that). Big advantage: If someone falls ill the other one is able to take over the other's shift.  |  IP: Logged Ken Russell Film Handler Posts: 23 From: Smyrna, GA USA Registered: Jun 2004 posted 08-18-2005 08:52 AM                     Just a little bit ago I heard that in the US each person see an average of 2 movies a year (a per capita thing so I see several peoples worth). In Japan that average is 28 a year. I would say such a business would warrent the extra staff. I would question though, is that cause or effect.  |  IP: Logged Richard Fowler Film God Posts: 2392 From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA Registered: Jun 2001 posted 08-18-2005 09:55 AM                     To continue John Walsh's comment. Japan business leaders approached Dr. W. Edwards Deming, a well known American quality control and efficiency expert, to come up with a plan to revive their industry with a goal for quality...he basically developed 14 points that they followed with great success....principals that some business here avoid with false efficiency.  |  IP: Logged Carey Barber Expert Film Handler Posts: 143 From: Newport News, VA, USA Registered: Jan 2003 posted 08-18-2005 12:24 PM                     I work at an AMC 24 'megaplex'. There are 2 10-projector booths, 2 single projector booths, and one 2-projector booth. (This layout really sucks) We always run 2 projectionists for the day shift and 2 for the night shift. One of the night shift people will leave after the last start and the other will leave after the last movie is out and everything is closed down for the night. On Thursday nights there is usually a third 'extra' person who is not operating but tearing down prints. In addition to the normal operating shifts, there are maintenance shifts and projectionists building up and screening prints. There were previous attempts to cut man-hours but this negatively affected presentation and made cleaning/maintenance more difficult. I have found that our current scheme provides a decent balance of quality vs. economy. (Of course, a bigger budget with more projectionists should provide better presentation/quality control but I don't think the human resources folks would be very happy)  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 08-18-2005 01:00 PM                     The 21 that I was booth manager at, we had 7 rooms: two rooms had 6 machines each, two rooms with 2 machines each, 3 single booths, and a "main booth" with 2 machines. "Main booth" is where our break/meetings were held, booth storage is located, all the trailers were stored, time clock was located..and my small office. Since we were open at 11:am each day, a schedule was followed and was originated by me: one operator did the entire complex at opening, then another operator came on duty at 1:00. The opening operator left at 6:00 (or when the final matinee set was started..), the closing operator came in at 6:00. Then the operator that came in at 1:00, left after the final set of shows were started or 10:30, and the closing operator closed the entire complex with cleanup as each machine dropped. He was usually gone by 12:30a(unless we had midnight showing of certain hot movies, then the out time for that operator was longer). I was placed on a budget of 210hrs/week upstairs. We were all on hourly wage. I managed to keep payroll under 185hrs with this schedule. Payroll was impressed that I was way under budget for booth operations (even my boss at home office was impressed on how I ran things there-we hardly had any problems and we were the only complex out of the state of CALIF). Whereas downstairs had some struggles to keep their budget under control at times. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Wolff King Morrow Master Film Handler Posts: 490 From: Denton, TX, USA Registered: Feb 2004 posted 08-18-2005 02:23 PM                        quote: Heath Dutton On Thursdays we have up to 4 projectionists here at the same time (2-3 building while one runs the set, or two running half the set while building, all depending on how many prints we are to receive). On Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays during the hours of 3-9 (peak hours) we will have a second projectionist so that the set can be split in two. This is just for insurance (if a technical difficulty occurs one can handle the problem while the other runs the set). We do one projectionist on all days except building days, which one projectionist builds during the day, while 2 other projectionists share the breakdowns, moves, and set threading at night. Usually it works out that no more than 2 projectionists are on the clock at any given Thursday. By the way, we do 2 interlocks five days a week (open caption stuff), which requires moving prints 2 or 3 times a week and having to reschedule showtimes. With regard to the Japanese system: My booth would be just as spotless if I could have 8 clones of me working simultaniously like that. But as things are, you just have to make do with what you get and do your best to get as much done as you can. BTW using the goldberg platter reel, I've never had to have more than one person building, even when we get 8 prints in. The sucker is a life-saver!  |  IP: Logged Steve Scott Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1300 From: Minneapolis, MN Registered: Sep 2000 posted 08-20-2005 10:01 AM                     At Lakeville, we ran two single person shifts for 18 machines, and I still managed to build prints on Wed. & Thurs. Albeit Lakeville is just one long hallway for as many shows as they run At Rosemount & St. Anthony Main, the managers and assistants run the shows. Although, last I knew, at Willow Creek, the 12 screen booth is staffed by a total of two people; now that's heart for your job.  |  IP: Logged Dominic Espinosa Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1172 From: California, U.S.A. Registered: Jan 2004 posted 08-20-2005 04:35 PM                     1 Projectionist per shift 6 Screens No thursday help We have a booth manager (me) and a projectionist as well as the supervisor and GM who are trained operators.  |  IP: Logged Will Wheatley Uhl Film Handler Posts: 10 From: Manchester, NH Registered: Dec 2003 posted 08-21-2005 12:22 AM                    If the average american watches 2 movies a year, than I must be some sort of super american or moderatly advanced japaneese. I think Ive watched 95% of the movies that came out this year. So, I think I might be edging on 50 0r 60 for this year alone.  |  IP: Logged Michael Schaffer "Where is the Boardwalk Hotel?" Posts: 4143 From: Boston, MA Registered: Apr 2002 posted 08-21-2005 12:39 AM                        Statistics, business models, whatever. What really makes the difference here is attitude. Japanese people in general have a great attitude towards work and a highly developed work ethic. They take pride in doing a job well. Some here do too, probably most or all of those who visit this website, but we all know that that kind of attitude here is really rare. Most employees are lazy and lack initiative, that's the sad reality. There is no work ethic here.  |  IP: Logged Wolff King Morrow Master Film Handler Posts: 490 From: Denton, TX, USA Registered: Feb 2004 posted 08-21-2005 02:00 AM                        That's also because here in the states, most businesses do not actually care about their employees. They spend most of their time trying to get away with spending as little as possible, which includes poverty-level wages for skilled labor. There is also the point of upbringing. It's not they are more "proud" in Japan, it's that they are simply used to working in a strict environment. It should also be pointed out that they only have to concentrate on two machines. Any of us here should be just as capable of performing well in that circumstance.  |  IP: Logged Matt Fields Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 545 From: Ohio, United States Registered: Jun 2005 posted 08-21-2005 09:39 AM                     I've always heard that statically Americans work more hours per week then any other people in the world. I don't think Americans, as a whole, are lazy. We wouldn't have the worlds largest economy if no one worked. But I do think that a lot of Americans under 25 are soft and lazy. They have, for the most part, not yet entered the competitive workforce in the sense that they need their job to survive. There is a book by Micheal Barone called "Hard America, Soft America" in which the basic premise is that Americans at 18 by and large suck and that Americans at 30 and up are some of the finest workers in the world. Once Americans get older and need to feed the kids or pay the mortgage, they get working. A lot of theatre workers are young people.  |  IP: Logged

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